Certified class includes approximately 1,850 Intel retirees or their surviving spouses, who allege that Intel violated ERISA by converting their single life annuity to a joint and survivor annuity using unreasonable actuarial assumption.

SAN JOSE, CA / ACCESS Newswire / July 1, 2025 / A federal judge certified a class of participants and beneficiaries in the Intel Minimum Pension Plan in a nationwide lawsuit against Intel Corporation for violating the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA").

The plaintiff alleges that the Intel Minimum Pension Plan penalized him and other married retirees when calculating their joint and survivor annuities. As a result, Intel deprived them of accrued, vested pension benefits when they receive their pension benefit in the default form of benefit for married participants. This error allegedly has cost these retirees millions in pension funds.

"We are pleased the judge granted class certification in this hard-fought lawsuit against Intel for violating ERISA," said Daniel R. Sutter, partner of Cohen Milstein's Employee Benefits/ERISA practice. "Intel's retirees should not be shortchanged because of their marital status. We look forward to advancing claims on behalf of the class of joint and survivor annuity recipients to ensure they receive all the retirement benefits they earned through their years of work."

Under ERISA, a joint and survivor annuity for married retirees must be "actuarily equivalent" to single life annuities for single retirees. To accomplish this, pension plan administrators use mortality rates and interest rates published by the U.S. Department of Treasury to convert single life annuity payments to joint and survivor annuity payments. However, the plaintiff in this case has argued that Intel used an outdated mortality table - dating back to 1983 - and therefore the plan participants and beneficiaries received less than the actuarial equivalent of their vested accrued benefit, in violation of ERISA.

This lawsuit is brought on behalf of nearly 1,850 Intel retirees and their surviving spouses who are receiving a joint and survivor annuity Intel Minimum Pension Plan.

The case, Berkeley v. Intel Corporation, et al., Case No. 5:23-cv-00343 was first filed on January 23, 2023 before the United States District Court of the Northern District of California.

This is one of six such cases the firm has filed against many the largest companies in the U.S. addressing similar claims, including against AT&T, IBM, Luxottica, and Southern Company. A certified marriage penalty class action against Citgo Petroleum was settled this past January.

Press Contact: cohenmilstein@berlinrosen.com

###

About Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, PLLC

Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, a premier U.S. plaintiffs' law firm, with over 100 attorneys across eight offices, champions the causes of real people - workers, consumers, small business owners, investors, and whistleblowers - working to deliver corporate reforms and fair markets for the common good. For more information visit https://www.cohenmilstein.com

SOURCE: Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC